Soft Skills Are Not Soft

Soft skills can be dated back to the US Military between 1968 and 1972, where they excelled in training troops to use machinery but found that what made the soldiers successful was how the group was led. Numerous studies also came out through the years supporting the theory that success isn’t only through a person’s IQ, but also through traits such as grit, emotional intelligence, conflict management, and more.

I made a search to find out some articles written to express that soft skills are not soft and shouldn’t be perceived “less important” when compared with hard skills.

Article-1:?Are hard skills more Important than soft skills to be an effective leader?

Forbes Magazine, Sept. 2018, Naz Behesthi, CEO-Prananaz, Executive Coach, Author of Pause. Breathe. Choose.

Emotional Intelligence is an umbrella term that encompasses many of these critical interpersonal skills. Laura Wilcox, director of management programs at the Harvard Extension School, said, “Emotional intelligence is no soft skill.”

In one critique of the importance of soft skills, assertiveness was found as a hard skill. At first, this makes sense. Yet, on closer inspection, it is clear that assertiveness is inseparable from interpersonal dynamics.

Competency research in over 200 companies and organizations worldwide found that emotional intelligence was twice as important as technical and cognitive ability in distinguishing top performers from average ones. In senior leadership positions, it was four times as important.

Article-2:?Soft skills are not soft

LinkedIn, April 2021, John Adams, Changemaker.

As with all these things, the definition between hard skills are softs isn’t set in stone. Generally speaking, it seems to be accepted that hard skills are taught and quantifiable whereas soft skills are interpersonal and difficult to assess.

- Building confidence

- Encouraging and nurturing talent

- Communication skills

- Establishing good business relationships

- Time management

- Flexibility and adaptability

After the experiences of the past year, where home and work life have molded into one in difficult circumstances, I hope we’ll see a change in approach and a change in mentality. I hope we see greater recognition that these are not soft skills, but are hard skills learned through experience and that can be quantified, if only employers could be bothered.

Article-3:?Soft Skills Are Irreplaceable

Katie Becker, March 2019, https://www.bradley-morris.com/2019/03/14/soft-skills-are-irreplaceable/

One common misunderstanding regarding soft skills is that they’re called “soft”. In fact, a 2018 Forbes article discusses how data reveals why the “soft” in soft skills is a huge misnomer. This “soft” simply means that these skills are not easily measurable. And, they can’t be learned–at least in a traditional classroom–like hard skills.

A 2017 joint study from Boston College, Harvard, and the University of Michigan suggested that so! Skills training in areas like problem solving and communication increases productivity and retention by 12 percent, with a 250 percent ROI. LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report concluded that among the trends transforming today’s workplace, 91 percent of survey respondents agree that so! skills are very important to the future of recruiting and HR. In addition, 80 percent believe so! skills are increasingly important to company success.

The report points out, “A particular programming language may go out of fashion, but creativity, adaptability, and collaboration skills will always be valuable. Many companies still struggle to accurately assess so! skills, despite their growing value. If companies want a hiring strategy for the future, they need to change how they identify and hire for so! skills.”

A 2017 Forbes piece cited Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report in which executives regarded so! skills as important for fostering employee retention, improving leadership, and building a meaningful culture. In fact, 92 percent of Deloitte’s respondents rated so! skills as a critical priority.

Article-4:?Soft’ skills are not ‘Soft

Praveen Sinha, Sept. 2020,??https://thecareerbeacon.in/2020/09/18/soft-skills-are-not-soft/

Soft skills are our character-based values that determine ‘who we are’, ‘how we interact with others’, and ‘how we influence others’. Soft skills are also leadership skills. They are the skills that allow us to be effective in life and at the workplace. In other words, they are the non-technical “people” skills and sometimes called the “21stcentury skills” that help people secure a job in a competitive job market. They include skills related to communication, collaboration, teamwork, decision making, problem-solving, professional networking, etc.

Soft skills are not really soft…they are not easy to develop, and they can become treacherous, if not cared for. They call for more effort and attention to training and to consistently demonstrate to let the world know ‘who you are’ and ‘what you stand for’. Further, soft skills or lack of them determine individual success, family culture, organization culture.

It is very interesting that soft skills play a vital role when we deal with customers -they make them either lifetime customers or dissatisfied vocal former customers.

Quotes from Simon Sinek:

Let’s stop using the term “soft skills.” There is nothing soft about them. Let's call them what they really are: human skills. Plus, “hard” and “soft” are opposites. In reality, our hard skills (the skills we need to do our jobs) and our human skills (the interpersonal skills we need to work well with others) work together to make us into great team members and great leaders.

Businesses have long focused on technical skills – the ‘how’ to do the job. But soft skills help effective leaders get to the ‘why’ and motivate the people around them to do those jobs more effectively.

More commonly labelled as “people” skills, soft skills – in the age of automation – are becoming more important than ever. Things like emotional intelligence and the ability to teach, connect with and motivate others, won’t ever be the work of machines or algorithms. And mastering such skills will be key to success, regardless of how much of a business, or individual jobs, is taken over by tech.

Soft skills have become more important as technology, such as AI, advances, and we absolutely need to hero people that know how to inspire others and drive the greatest morale within our

teams. But Simon Sinek points out that “soft skills” are not soft at all. In fact, if we were to use two categories for skills people have in the workplace, they would be hard skills and human skills.